{"id":125411,"date":"2020-01-27T07:23:14","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T15:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=125411"},"modified":"2020-01-27T10:30:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T18:30:55","slug":"former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/","title":{"rendered":"Former River Rock VIP Manager Claims Top Brass Fired Him to Silence Him Over Money Laundering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great Canadian Gaming Corp (GCG) is accused in a new lawsuit of trying to silence the former VIP gaming manager at its River Rock Casino and Resort<\/a> in Richmond, BC. The allegation comes amid a public investigation<\/a> into a money-laundering epidemic in the province.<\/p>\n

\"River
Walter Soo (right) hanging out at the River Rock with Mike Tyson in 2013. (Image: Youtube\/Walter Soo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Walter Soo was executive vice president of player and gaming development until August 2019, when he was fired by GCG, Glacier Media<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

According to corporate documents and interviews with company insiders conducted last year by Global News<\/em>, Soo began his career in 1983 as a dealer with GCG, and subsequently built River Rock\u2019s hugely lucrative VIP business.<\/p>\n

It was under Soo\u2019s watch that a culture of accepting large, unsourced cash transactions thrived at River Rock in violation of the casino\u2019s anti-money laundering (AML) responsibilities, according to an RCMP report.<\/p>\n

Dirty Cash<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In July 2015, the casino was found to have accepted CA$13.5 million (US$10.24 million) in $20 bills. On one occasion, it approved a single transaction of half a million dollars in low-denomination bills.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the RCMP report described \u201cnocturnal drop-offs\u201d of large amounts of money in the casino\u2019s parking lot, which police said pointed to an underground banking network with links to the drugs trade.<\/p>\n

\n

But according to Soo\u2019s lawsuit, he\u2019s being set up as the \u201cfall person\u201d for River Rock\u2019s AML failings in order to protect those higher up in the food chain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Soo says he was offered a severance package that included two years\u2019 salary ($443,000), plus stock options, but only if he were to agree to \u201crefrain from co-operating or participating in proceedings\u201d involving GCG.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Soo did not sign the deal because he believed it could tarnish his reputation and leave him exposed to blame for the AML breaches.<\/p>\n

Scapegoat Claim<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Soo claims it was his job to bring in high-rolling clients to River Rock\u2019s VIP tables, not to implement compliance policy.<\/p>\n

The suit names GCG President and CEO Rod Baker and President of Strategic Growth and Chief Compliance Officer Terrance Doyle as being primarily responsible for compliance and AML regulation.<\/p>\n

The actions of Great Canadian were devised with the ulterior motive of preventing Mr. Soo from clarifying his employment obligations and addressing and clearing his name of the defamatory statements made against him,\u201d the lawsuit alleges. \u201cThey were designed to protect Great Canadian, its Board and its senior executives.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Soo says he is happy to participate in the public investigation into the money laundering problem in order to clear his name. He is suing for loss of salary and is asking for an order declaring his employment contract invalid.<\/p>\n

GCG has called Soo\u2019s allegations \u201cunnecessary, scandalous, frivolous and vexatious.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great Canadian Gaming Corp (GCG) is accused in a new lawsuit of trying to silence the former VIP gaming manager at its River Rock Casino and Resort in Richmond, BC. The allegation comes amid a public investigation into a money-laundering epidemic in the province. Walter Soo was executive vice president of player and gaming development […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":125413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFormer River Rock VIP Manager Claims Top Brass Fired Him to Silence Him Over Money Laundering - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Great Canadian Gaming Corp (GCG) is accused in a new lawsuit of trying to silence the former VIP gaming manager at its River Rock Casino and Resort in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former River Rock VIP Manager Claims Top Brass Fired Him to Silence Him Over Money Laundering - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Great Canadian Gaming Corp (GCG) is accused in a new lawsuit of trying to silence the former VIP gaming manager at its River Rock Casino and Resort in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-27T15:23:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-27T18:30:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walter.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"857\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/\",\"name\":\"Former River Rock VIP Manager Claims Top Brass Fired Him to Silence Him Over Money Laundering - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walter.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-27T15:23:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-27T18:30:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Great Canadian Gaming Corp (GCG) is accused in a new lawsuit of trying to silence the former VIP gaming manager at its River Rock Casino and Resort in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/former-river-rock-vip-manager-claims-top-brass-fired-him-to-silence-him-over-money-laundering\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walter.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/walter.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":857,\"caption\":\"Walter Soo (right) handing out at the River Rock with Mike Tyson in 2013. 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